Comparing the Effect of Video-cases and Text-cases on Medical Students' Learning in Tutorial

Education, Medical Clinical Trial

Official title:

A Randomized Crossover Study to Compare the Critical Thinking of Medical Students When Using Video-based or Written Cases

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT01286025
• Other study ID #: M15700-101
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• First received: January 27, 2011
• Last updated: January 27, 2011
• Start date: February 2008
• Est. completion date: February 2009

Study information

• Verified date: January 2011
• Source: Harvard University Faculty of Medicine
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Health authority: United States: Institutional Review Board
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

This study is designed to examine how the type of learning case affects the thinking of medical students in tutorial

Description:

Tutorials at Harvard Medical School use problem-based learning with written cases. Students work in groups under the supervision of a tutor who guides their exploration of the material. As students progress through the curriculum there is an opportunity to advance the complexity of the material they are presented with. Video-based patient case studies have been shown to improve critical thinking ratios in paediatric medical student problem-based learning exercises, and time spent on data exploration, theory building and theory evaluation in postgraduate residency programs. We hypothesize that video provides a stimulus that improves cognitive processing and critical thinking among medical students, as compared to working from the text-based transcript of the same case.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 28
• Est. completion date: February 2009
• Est. primary completion date: February 2009
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: Both
• Age group: 18 Years to 65 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• medical student participating in the endocrine and reproductive pathophysiology course at Harvard Medical School

Exclusion Criteria:

Study Design

Allocation: Randomized, Endpoint Classification: Efficacy Study, Intervention Model: Crossover Assignment, Masking: Open Label, Primary Purpose: Health Services Research

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Education, Medical
• Education, Medical, Undergraduate
• Interactive Tutorial
• Problem Solving
• Problem-based Learning

Intervention

Behavioral:
• video case modality
Patients whose case histories are pathophysiologically illustrative will be recruited, and interviewed on video. Their stories will be edited and divided into sections, and combined with the patient's laboratory, imaging, and pathological reports when appropriate
• Text case modality
Patients whose case histories are pathophysiologically illustrative will be recruited, and interviewed on video. Their stories will be edited and divided into sections, and combined with the patient's laboratory, imaging, and pathological reports when appropriate. The transcript of these video-recordings will form the basis of the text-based case presentation modality.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United States	Harvard Medical School	Boston	Massachusetts

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Harvard University Faculty of Medicine

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United States, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Overall ratio of deep to superficial thinking	Depth of thinking will be evaluated using the method of Kamin et al. Transcription of each tutorial will be divided into utterances. Each utterance will be coded for depth of thinking (deep vs. superficial). The ratio of deep to superficial thinking by case modality will be reported.	Four 90-minute tutorial sessions	No
Secondary	Distribution of learning activities	Transcription of each tutorial will be divided into utterances. Each utterance will be coded by learning domain (identification, description, exploration, integration, and application. The distribution of domains by case modality will be reported.	Four 90-min tutorial sessions	No
Secondary	Preferences of students for each case modality	Students will be surveyed regarding their preferences for video- vs. text-based case presentation modality using a Likert-scale	5 weeks	No
Secondary	Preferences of tutors for each case modality	Tutors will be surveyed regarding their preferences for video- vs. text-based case presentation modality using a Likert-scale	5 weeks	No